Canon 5D Mark II, 85mm F/1.2, f/6.3, .4 sec, iso 200
Sunday was such a stormy day, our first real downpour. One part of the main building houses the kilns. These are enormous, like 40 feet around. Here they fire the clay pipe and architectural pieces.
What it looked like to me is that they started with a building and a couple of kilns, and then over the past 135 years they added to the building and built newer kilns. Probably each new construction was more efficient than the last, and they ceased using the oldest ones. The oldest ones are now relics, with plants growing on them. And that's because the roof is in such disrepair.
It was a wild scene, with rain pouring in from above, and the corrugated tin ceiling slamming in the wind. I stood in places where there was fewer puddles, trying to not get rained on any more than I had to. I had to use a tripod given the low light levels. Many of my images were ruined due to raindrops on the lens. It was something new for me... See, compose, set up exposure, wipe, shoot! Often there would be a great "clang" from above as the roof was punished by the wind, and I'd look up nervously to see if it was going to come down on me.
I was drawn to this particular scene because I had already been told that these carts were 100 years old and are still used today. Upstairs where there are a lot of tiles, the carts hold a great many of them. Who knows why these carts were left behind so forlornly?
For processing I first converted to B&W (one button in LR) and then played with the color sliders to get this overall tone. Messed with curves, shadows, contrast, etc. I used the paint tool to darken up the front part of the pool so that it looked a bit more like a pool.
This genre is usually called "decay," and for whatever reason I am a big fan. You can use the decay category on the right hand side of this blog page to see other decay images.
I think this is one of my better ones, just due to the intense and unusual scene. Let me know what you think?
